How Will USDA Help Farmers Impacted By China Tariffs?

President Trump has said in the past that if tariffs and fees planned by China on American ag products cause economic hardship for American farmers, the federal government will step in an help those impacted farmers.  But, how will that be done?  Ag Secretary Sonny Perdue said he doesn’t feel it’s a good idea to lay out that game plan at this time.

“We’re looking very closely at meeting with the sorghum producers, specifically right now, watching pork very carefully, but we don’t want to move to quickly, we don’t want to move in a way that would set a precedent of expectation from all producers.”

Perdue noted there are existing programs that can be used to help lighten the blow if needed.  Perdue added another challenge is trying to determine what impact is tied directly to China’s actions.

“We’ve calculated numbers, I just don’t think it’s appropriate today to talk about the numbers that our economists have calculated and predicted in that way.”

Perdue noted he hopes the USDA never needs to use those numbers and that China will be interested in negotiating.

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